Hello there. Feels like it’s been donkey’s years since I’ve posted, huh? (Did I use that phrase correctly? And why donkeys?)
Grad school has been keeping me busy, mostly with legwork in regards to possible careers—I gotta have some means to pay these student loans. Obviously, many leisure activities were crowding the back burner during this time, and I’m just now taking the pot that contains The Eoin Fame and bringing it back to a front burner before the foam boils over and makes a mess.
But it hasn’t all been tedious. I’ve been enjoying the research required for my MLIS studies, and it’s taken me down some fun paths. For a time, I was particularly interested in zines and their place in library collections. I’m more drawn to the non-political zines, and I see a lot of potential in these little handmade books for bypassing the rigorous standards of publishing (and even self-publishing) and allowing creatives to tell stories in their own way.
In fact, I’ve grown so fond of the freestyle nature of zines that I started to realize that, even if I’ve experimented with different colors and brushes, I’ve had a rather rigid—and very killjoy—mindset when it comes to TEF.
Don’t get me wrong. Clip Studio Paint is a fine playground for artists, and its 3D materials have saved my perspective-challenged self numerous times. But it might have also played a role in my attempt to streamline my process, which has kind of stifled the energy I once had in this project.
I need to go back to basics and have fun with the story again—maybe even going so far as to draw on paper.
Right now, I don’t know what that means in terms of updates—whether I’ll continue the single posts or go back to updating in batches—but this could revitalize the comic in a way.
Maybe The Eoin Fame needs to become a digital zine.
We’ll see what we’ll see. In the meantime, I want to thank you for still hanging around. I hope TEF adds an occasional bit of joy to your day when it’s updated, and I hope to make it better going forward.
The Eoin Fame 